Happy Birthday Sweetie!

On Tuesday it’ll be my sweetie’s birthday! We celebrated early yesterday with our girls and their families! We , as in I, made a nice meal complete with cake and ice cream! This year Denis asked for carrot cake and I was happy to oblige since this summer I found the “Namaste Gluten-free mixes”! They have a spice cake that rivals any cake mix, let alone a gluten-free one! I toss in coconut, pecans and raisins and call it morning-glory cake! I top it with an icing made of icing sugar,coconut oil and almond milk, and a dash of vanilla…can you say yummy?

We had three options on the ice cream, a rare treat in our home! We had mint chocolate chip, vanilla and we had a coconut milk ice cream that was turtle flavor! Between us all, we finished off a couple of the cartons! Melanie and Holly and I were absolutely crazy about the turtle ice cream, it was dairy,soy and gluten-free! You got to love that! We made the most noise at the table!

Our dinner table is getting crammed with all the kids, we need to come up with a plan where we are not all eating with our elbows glued to our ribs! One slip of a fork and you could lose an eye! Our family has grown so much in the last five years, it’s hardly recognisable! This is a great thing in my eyes!

We feted on jalapeno poppers, humus, fresh salsa for snacks before the real food got served! For the actual dinner we had spinach salad, smoked pork chops a la Denis, steak, scalloped potatoes, and a mix of green and yellow beans! Just a few of Denis’ favourites! We made two pots of scalloped potatoes, one was a regular ooey-goey cheesy casserole, the other was dairy and gluten-free! The Dayia cheeses that I got at Whole Foods last week came in handy! It’s a bit of work to make dishes for the ‘special’ people but when everyone else is having something, it sure is nice to have some too even if it is a different version of it!

Dinner is my favourite time when the kids visit, as that is really when the true character of the kids comes out! Blake goes into stuffing mode, eating anything and everything in sight, Heidi likes to tell stories while supper gets cold, Holly tells stories too but mostly giggles at Heidi and Evelyn just nibbles away at just about anything! It is amazing to me that only eight months ago she was a preemie and now here she is fully caught up and just as cute as can be!

If Denis were writing this blog, he’d tell you his favourite time is when he has one or two or three of the kids on his lap, us singing Happy birthday and he is blowing out the candles! It’s heart-warming to know how loved he is by those kids, as am I. The feeling is certainly mutual.

Family is love and love is family. that’s my story and I am sticking to it!